Making a Choice:

Conscientious Objection or Draft Resistance

Are you thinking about registering for the draft? Do you plan to
seek Conscientious Objector (CO) status if you get drafted?

This leaflet was written by people who could probably qualify for CO status
if we registered and there was a draft. We haven't registered, and this leaflet
explains why we hope you won't register either, or will refuse to report for induction
or refuse to be inducted into the military if you already registered and you are drafted

Most people who qualify as COs oppose war and want to prevent the
draft. But if you register, people in the government will interpret your
registration as a sign that you acknowledge their "right" to draft you, and that
you'll cooperate if the draft returns.

Registering and seeking CO status might seem like the best way to go, but it
is not the only way. If you want to stay out of the armed forces
and help keep them out of wars, refusing to register or refusing to be drafted
might be a better way to put your beliefs into action.

Then and Now

During the Vietnam War, at least 250,000 men refused to register. Only 250
of them were ever convicted in court. That's only one out of 1,000, and back
then it was easier to catch nonregistrants because men had to carry draft cards
at all times.

It's pretty hard to get in trouble these days for refusing to
register. Lots of people get form letters from Selective Service, but if you
ignore them they almost always ignore you!
Only 20 out of more than a million nonregistrants
(and millions more who have violated the registration law in
other ways) have been prosecuted since 1980, and no one has been
indicted for nonregistration in more than 25 years.

On the other hand, half of all men who applied for CO status
during the Vietnam War were turned down. Those men were in a tough spot: they
had already registered, so the government knew where to find them if they didn't
show up for induction. If the draft comes back, thousands of legitimate
COs won't get CO status. The safest way to avoid participating in war is to
refuse to register.

Trying for CO status is not an easy way out!

What's Wrong With "Conscientious Objection"?

There are many reasons why some people won't seek "Conscientious Objector"
(CO) status:

Accepting CO status makes you part of the military system. The military
gives COs special status inside the military to keep them away from ways of
resisting that could actually stop the draft.

By accepting CO status you acknowledge the government's right to draft
you and judge your conscience.

CO status isn't available equally to all of us. Poor people, blacks,
Hispanics, and anyone who doesn't belong to a Christian peace church has a
much harder time getting CO status than educated, wealthy, white Christian
pacifists.

Every time someone is deferred as a CO, someone else is drafted to fight
in his place. (The Selective Service plans to send out 10
induction notices for every soldier they want.)

Preparing your CO claim doesn't help prevent war. Refusing to register
does. Protesting the draft while cooperating with it doesn't accomplish
much. We want to prevent the draft, not just complain
about it.

Why Refuse to Register?

The government started draft registration in 1980 to "test the water" and see
whether young people would cooperate. Well over a million of us didn't: we
resisted. Since 1980, many times more of us have refused to register than
during the entire Vietnam War. Unless the vast majority of us cooperate with
the Selective Service System, the draft won't work. And the high rate of
nonregistration has the government worried. Draft resistance is already
preventing the draft!

Some people think that huge numbers of CO applications could clog up
Selective Service and stop the draft. But the people running Selective Service
aren't fools. They know there will be lots of applications, and they've already
made plans and trained volunteers to handle them. No matter how many people
register and seek CO status, they can be processed, judged, and neutralized by a
big fat bureaucracy. The cost of handling the COs will be trivial compared to
the cost of fighting the wars.

We're not trying to say that a CO can't resist war, or that becoming a CO is
wrong. Many people who registered and plan to apply for CO status have been
active in the Resistance movement, and COs were an essential part of the
Resistance during the Vietnam War. (Many now regret having registered, and
found they couldn't in conscience do the alternative service work they were
assigned as COs.) But the illegal resisters -- deserters, AWOL's,
nonregistrants, and people who refused induction -- brought the draft to its
knees. There was a two-year backlog of draft-related court cases when the draft
ended in 1973, and resistance to draft registration has
prevented a draft since 1980.

But What If I'm Caught?

Nobody has been indicted for nonregistration since 1986.

Current and former government officials have admitted that in 1988,
after the first 20 test cases, the government
suspended all further prosecutions
of even the most flagrant and vocal nonregistrants.

Even when the government indicted a token 20 nonregistrants in 1982-1986,
they were always given another chance to register before being prosecuted. If
you are singled out for prosecution, you'll probably get a visit from the FBI or
a certified letter you have to sign for from the Justice Department offering you that
"last chance". If you're willing to register then, you can still register
without penalty, and you can still apply for CO status if you get called for induction.

You lose nothing by waiting; the government hasn't prosecuted anyone for late
registration. Your initial unwillingness to register may even be evidence you
can use to show the sincerity of your CO claim.

However, if you register, you have to gamble that your CO claim will get a
fair hearing and get approved. If you gamble and lose, you'll really be caught!

When my claim as a CO was recognized ... I found myself thinking that it's a
very good system of conscription that "allows" a man to try to help his fellows
to live constructively instead of destructively. I had failed to stop to
question by what authority it came to be that a man should have to justify this
creative inclination to his draft board. I had failed to realize that my
deferment as a CO was a convenient way by which my resistance to conscription
and the military (and the resistance of thousands like me) was effectively
silenced.

I had failed to acknowledge that my claim as a CO was only begrudgingly
given to me because my "credentials" were good, because I was articulate,
because my education had made it easy for me to produce a convincing defense of
my desire to live peaceably and lovingly: in short, because I fell within a
certain small, carefully defined group to whom the government felt it was both
wise and safe to give deferments: wise, because otherwise this group might raise
some embarrassing questions about the legitimacy of conscription and militarism,
and safe because the group is small enough so as to have little influence on the
populace at large.

[Richard Boardman, from a 1967 letter to his draft board renouncing his CO
deferment]

But What If I Already Registered?

If you've already registered, you have fewer choices, but you can still
choose to resist. If you don't tell the SS where you live, or if you ignore an
induction notice, the same legal risks we talked about for nonregistrants would
apply. In order to prosecute you, they would have to prove that you actually
knew you were breaking the law. That will be very difficult without proof that
you got their notices.

What Do You Believe?

Deciding whether to register or to resist isn't easy. This may be the most
difficult than important decision you have faced, and it's not a choice anybody
else can make for you. Talk to a draft counselor, your friends and family, and
other people whom you respect. Get as much information as you can before
you decide. Don't be pressured into making a hasty decision. Remember: you
have until you are 26 to make up your mind whether to register.

While there is always a risk when you go against the power of the government,
so far the government has not been able to follow through on its threats against
nonregistrants. However, the risks of registering are not theoretical, but
concrete: registering gives the government one more weapon to force you into
killing or dying in a war you didn't choose.